Moving Forward: Resilience of a Chemistry for Health Professions 2D Virtual Lab Program During COVID

ABSTRACT

Chemical education laboratory practices have not been exempted from the present healthcare crisis. Learning environments have shifted from face-to-face exercises to virtual and video conferencing platforms. Here, we discuss a chemistry for health sciences course which (i) adapted the previous face-to-face laboratory exercises to 100% online using online platforms two years preceding COVID only to shift to completely remote learning and back again and (ii) highlight correlations between chemistry concepts (e.g., pH, solubility, and serial dilutions) and medical practices. Additionally, course pass/fail trends pre-COVID and during COVID are identified and discussed by the author. Regarding example laboratory teaching and learning, this article further examines the responses for two groups of students and their perspectives on 2D virtual chemistry lab experiences and parallel discussions in healthcare (1) For group 1, students (n = 135) completed an anonymous and voluntary Likert-type questionnaire for a pH and serial dilution online lab experience with over 92% recommending the lab experience for future enrollees, and (2) for group 2, student (n = 107) results indicated 93% of the survey participants were providing the same recommendation.